Competing

In Englands Business Awards

Being nominated for one of the awards is an exciting time not just for you but your staff and customers too. There is soon a lot of discussion locally about which businesses are in the running and of course who might win. Always hotly contested are the individual city/town awards. But what does competing involve and what can you expect to happen next ?

Nominations
Nominations are open all year round to encourage people to put forward businesses for consideration. There is no restriction placed on who or what kind of business may be nominated because we will visit the business before any final decision is made. Since 2018 online nominations have included the option to say why you are nominating a business. But no one nominating or voting has to reveal their name or the reason for the nomination if they don’t want to. The details entered online are only checked to watch for duplicate votes.

Votes
Any member of the public can vote for the business but it is only one factor. The are also some businesses where voting or asking customers to vote is simply not appropriate.

Street Team
During this stage we are looking at how easy is it for customers to find your business.

Mystery shoppers
Mystery shoppers can, phone you and make internet and facebook enquiries to test some of the customer experience. Some can call in to test your products and services. If they have any difficulty accessing the business someone from the team will be sent to find out why. Businesses are selected at random for mystery shopping as once we are in an area businesses tend to share that information making it less effective.

The Decision
Through a combination of nominations, the street team, mystery shopping and our discussions with the owner/manager, a winner is decided. The decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

The results night
The results night for your area is as chance to get together with other finalist businesses from your area and find out first who wins.

The Black Tie Award Dinners are held locally in a hotel in your region.

In general the retail awards are considered as follows,

If you are not involved in retail this list will not apply to your business

Individual City/Town Awards

New Business Awards

Community Awards

Independent Retailer Awards

Specialised Retailer Awards

Licensed Trade Awards

Consumers Awards

Innovation Awards

Hair Salon Awards

Barbers Awards

Beauty Awards

Nail Awards

Restaurant, Cafe, Eatery and Takeaway

Health & Fitness Awards

Craft and Creative Awards

Hotel and B&B Awards

Lifetime Achievement in Business Awards

This list is not full and may change from year to year in line with nominations from the public.